Gus Chan, Plain Dealer fileJovan Tuba, left, a junior and Jessiah Hayes, right, a senior, on the campus of the University of Akron. The two are students at the Early College High School on the campus. They will have earned two years of college credit when they graduate from high school.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio's top education leaders want to "reinvent" the senior year of high school so that instead of cruising through their final year, students get involved in technical training, apprenticeships or college classes.

"We want to have no distinction between the senior year of high school and the first year of college," said Stan Heffner, superintendent of the Ohio Department of Education, at a meeting this week of the Ohio Board of Regents, which oversees higher education.

"A high school senior year is in many ways a wasteland," he said. "They have passed the Ohio Graduation Test and tests to get into college. Wouldn't it be something to have them meshed together? We're pretty excited about this."

Chancellor Jim Petro, head of the state's higher-education system, agrees that Ohio has to overhaul 12th grade.

For at least a decade, educators across the countryhave discussed ways to alter the senior year, according to a 2001 report by a commission appointed by the U.S. Department of Education.

As many as half of all high school students "are undereducated or miseducated," and even high achievers who have been accepted to college "consider the senior year a farewell tour of adolescence," according to the report, "The Lost Opportunity of the Senior Year: Finding a Better Way."

But little has changed nationally since the report was released. A Utah state senator introduced a bill to make the high school senior year optional in 2010 as a way to balance the state budget. But other than getting a slew of national media attention, it gained no support.

Many states are talking about how to make 12th grade more relevant but none as seriously as Ohio, said Bruce Hunter, associate executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, a professional organization for school superintendents.

"The way we have structured schools is you have to accumulate credits to graduate and by the 12th grade, particularly the second semester, they are pretty unmotivated," he said.

He said students may be prepared to graduate after 11th grade but states like Ohio would not likely be able to absorb those who don't plan to go on to college into the workforce.

In Ohio, efforts are under way to better align secondary education with college, including preparing students so they do not need remedial courses when they enter college and offering work-force training for those who don't want to attend college. In addition, officials are encouraging students to earn college credits in high school so they could graduate earlier and save money.

Heffner and Petro saidthey are working on 12th-grade initiatives with Richard Ross, the former Reynoldsburg schools superintendent recently named by Gov. John Kasich to head the Governor's Office of 21st Century Education.

"It's the biggest issue among the three of us, and we will get it resolved," Petro said after the meeting.

One option is to provide state funding to school districts only through 11th grade.

"We should make 12th grade a neutral and wherever the student goes the money should go," Petro said. "If half the students are taking courses at a community college, the college gets it."

Petro and Heffner said funding could also be distributed to cover seniors who go to technical training schools, seek apprenticeships and internships or stay in high school.

Currently, high school students can attend technical school or take Advanced Placement classes and receive credit from a college after they pass an exam. Ohio also offers the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options Program, in which a student takes college classes while in high school, earning college credit at no cost.

But few take advantage of the opportunities, Heffner said. Only 4 percent of public high schools students are in the options program, partially because high schools promote Advanced Placement classes since districts lose state money if the student takes a college course.

Access to college is also an issue. The state's community colleges have the most students in the post-secondary program, according to Ohio Department of Education statistics.

Cleveland State University is trying to address that problem. This fall, CSU professors will teach one class each in math and English at Maple Heights High School for students at that school and at high schools in Warrensville Heights, Bedford Heights and Garfield Heights, said Sajit Zachariah,dean of the College of Education and Human Services.

He said he was contacted by Maple Heights Superintendent Charles Keenan about providing the classes. The students will receive credit without having to travel to Cleveland, may become interested in enrolling at CSU and will be better prepared for college, he said.

"If this model is successful, we hope to expand it to other districts," Zachariahsaid.

CSUPresident Ronald Berkman said examining how to make the mostof 12th grade is an "interesting prospect."

"It is a squandered year for many, but not the case for every student," he said. Petro and Heffner "should look at it incrementally."

In many countries, including India and China, students leave high school after 11th grade and enroll in college, he said. Many take a national test that determines university placement.

"It is helpful if they create a more seamless bridge between high school and college," Berkmansaid. "You go through a deceleration in your senior year, then have to accelerate when you go to college."

He said he saw that occur with his own children.

Solon schools Superintendent Joseph Regano said 12th grade needs to be addressed, but he opposed doling out funding based on what the high school senior is studying because state and local funds are not spent equally across school districts.

Instead, he believes students should graduate after 11th grade.

"Instead of K-12, start funding at age 4 and fund preschool through grade 11," Regano said. "This is a way to do [preschool] at no cost. And students who do not attend preschool are in disadvantaged neighborhoods."

Heffner said at the regents meeting,when discussing his general priorities,that a preschool education is imperative.

Regano said his proposal would allow educators to help children at an early age, leadingto less violence and fewer dropouts.

And he is convinced that students are ready to graduate at age 16 or 17.

"Honestly, kids are more mature today and they have learned at a quicker rate and are ready to roll," he said. "We could get them graduated."

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